School Newsletter - Term 2 - Week 6
Principal's Report
It’s hard to believe that we are more than halfway through Term 2. The time has really flown!
Our students have participated in a number of incursion and excursion opportunities thus far this term and our newsletter contains some of the highlights of these, including the Mawson’s Hut Incursion, The National Simultaneous Story Time visit to the Bothwell Library, Trips to Parliament and Government Houses as well as the Campbell Town Show. A huge thank you to staff for organising these wonderful opportunities.
This term our Year 6-8 Health class, our group travelling to Canberra, have been organising hot lunches. So far, they have organised hot dogs and nachos and next on the menu will be jacket potatoes. These little fundraisers all add up. Together with the Bunnings BBQ, the Firewood Raffle, the donations from Sheep Station Cup and The Bothwell School Association, our students will all manage to travel to Canberra for no more than $400 per person in total. A big thank you to our community for your support of our 2025 trip.
This term our teachers will be sharing ‘evidences of learning’ via Seesaw. The first will be an example of their English Work and this will be followed with an example of their work in Mathematics. Students will also be bringing home a mid-year report at the end of this term. As always, we encourage our families to have regular communications with teachers and vice versa.
This week we farewelled Ian Whittaker as a long-serving bus driver of the Aspley to Bothwell via Hollow Tree Road bus run. We presented Ian with a card signed by all staff and by all students as well as a bunch of flowers. We also surrounded the turning circle as he completed his final run! We cannot thank Ian enough for his 25 years of service to the school. We will be inviting Ian to join us at our next Celebration Assembly to give the community an opportunity to also thank him for his service. We welcome Luke Brooks from Valley Passenger Transport who will now take on this bus service and our students will be introduced to their new drivers this week.
Finally, I wish to thank the Sheep Station Cup for their very generous donation of ten thousand dollars for our School Association to spend on opportunities for our students. This is an annual donation that is very much appreciated where the money donated is used to directly support our students.
Kind Regards,
Erika Boas
Principal
Our Reading Focus:
National Simultaneous Storytime:
The Story this year was "The Truck Cat" by Deborah Frankel and Danny Snell. Our students from Kinder/ Prep, Class 1/2 plus the 3/4 students, along with their teachers and support staff, walked to the Bothwell Library and Tanya read the story "The Truck Cat" to the students. This story was very good, Tinka the cat lives in a truck with his human. The main themes in this story are kindness, compassion and the bonds between humans and animals.
Our students have done some fantastic activities about this book.
The students from Kinder- Prep and Class 1-2 also presented their persuasive writing for assembly last week.
Midlands Collaboration
We are continuing to work with Bagdad, Kempton and Oatlands Schools to collaborate around our Reading Priority. This year we are focusing on the teaching of fluency and preparing shared resources around the teaching of key texts.
Wellbeing Focus:
Attendance Cup
Our students continue to take pride in monitoring their attendance this year. We look at the weekly tallies for each class and the class with the most improved, or highest level of attendance, are awarded the Attendance Cup and a treat for the week. Recently this was awarded to Ms Pennicott’s class. Every school day matters, and we look forward to seeing continued high rates of attendance this year. A reminder to families that any day away from school needs to be explained. Please contact the office or post a message to schoolzine app or Seesaw.
Royal Flying Doctors Service:
Students and family members can now make referrals for a session with Courtney. Please refer to the information below.
Lunchtime activities:
To support our students during the colder days, we have a number of lunchtime activities occurring. This includes Choir (on Mondays), Reading Club (on Wednesdays) and Craft Club (on Thursdays).
Learning Showcase
Kinder / Prep
In Kinder /Prep we have been focusing on forming our letters correctly. During our PLD spelling time, we have been writing our learnt letters on the whiteboards, tracing and developing our fine motor skills to enhance our writing ability. We are recognising our letters in print and have been enjoying taking home our home readers to further develop our letter name and sound knowledge.
Miss Jones
Class 1-2
Mawson’s Hut Antarctic Classroom visited the school. Kinder - Year 2 learnt about the climate of Antarctica, the different penguins (and other animals) that live there and then the future polar scientists quickly zipped to Antartica in thick jackets and saw a snowstorm!
They would make fantastic explorers, and wonderful penguin parents because the photos show how well they were looking after the eggs.
Year 1/2:
In Science this term we have begun our investigation into living things. We found living and non-living things in our environment and looked at the question “what are the basic needs of plants and animals?” We have chosen an animal of choice and have begun to pose questions and research the animal to identify needs that are the same and needs that differ. We look forward to sharing our research with you at the end of the term.
Miss Jones
This term grade 1/2 are learning about fables and fairy tales. Throughout this unit we are focusing on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. On Monday we read the fable ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’. We identified the characters and took in turns acting them out, using our expressions to communicate how each character was feeling.
Year 3/4/5:
Our class have been creating information texts. We have been learning about the structure and key features of information texts including subheadings, facts and opinions and how to write paragraphs.
Year 9/10:
Parliament House and Government House Excursion
On Wednesday, the 28th of May, the students of Bothwell District High School (years 6-12) went on a lovely excursion to The Tasmanian Parliament and to The Governor's house. Though the day started off quite dim it only got better and better. We left Bothwell fairly early at 8:30am, as we embarked on our journey to North Hobart. On the journey to the Parliament the bus was full of radiating noises of students buzzing with excitement.
We soon arrived at the Parliament where we witnessed question time in the Lower House between Labor, Liberal, and the Greens. As we entered the room, we got to observe some heated and passionate discussions. One about the 5th Spirit of Tasmanian between the leader of the Opposition the Honourable Dean Winter and The Honourable Eric Abetz. Another was between Rosalie Woodruff Leard of the Greens and The Honourable Madeleine Ruth Ogilvie having an intense and spirited debate about whether the algae bloom is the reason behind our decrease in salmon We also got a shout out form the Honourable Michelle Anne O’Byrne the Speaker of the House Assembly. Acknowledging the students of Bothwell District High.
After listening in for a few more questions we retreated to a room where we were split in two groups. One group would head back to the Lower House and continue to listen into the discussions while the other would head to the Upper House and would switch after a few minutes. We entered the Upper House while it was in session and got another shout out from The Honourable Craig Farrell, the President of the Legislative Council. Once the two groups had their turn visiting the Upper House we retreated to the same room once more where a surprise guest was waiting. We were surprised to meet none other than Casey Farrell. Son of The Honourable Carig Farrell, and one of the newest members of the electorate of Lyons. We got to ask him some questions about the Parliament, the difference between the Upper and Lower Houses as well as using this opportunity for a photo to commemorate our first ever visit by the students of Bothwell High.
We then stopped for a short break at a local park for lunch. Where everyone was able to get some fresh air and some food into their system for the next exciting event ahead. We then headed off to the governor’s house, where we got to meet her secretary who greeted us on behalf of the Governor (as she was away on leave), her Aide de Comp and her butler. After meeting her secretary, we were then served some delicious afternoon tea! Once everyone had finished eating, we finally were able to begin our grand tour. Led by the Aide de Comp, we got to explore multiple rooms, such as the French Room, the Drawing Room, the Ballroom and many more, along with many interesting facts. Like did you know in the Ballroom they have 3 massive chandeliers named Crystal, Cinderella, and Charlotte?
Once our grand tour finished, we began our long journey back to school. The buzz and excitement of the morning was replaced by a reflective hush after the memorable day full of events. When we arrived back at school we were greeted by our teachers, family and friends. It was a long and eventful day which I'm sure many students will not forget!
This day is one I will never forget as it may have just opened a potential new career path for me. One I had never thought of pursuing until I saw the members of Parliament live. I'm sure I was just one of many students who were greatly inspired by this excursion. On behalf of my fellow classmates and the other students here at Bothwell District High we wanted to say a major thank you to all the teachers who had organised this event. To the parliament who so kindly allowed us to come and watch their antics live. Last but not least to the Governor and her staff who so kindly invited us to come to her home and escorted us around the beautiful manor.
Ea Duncan, Year 9
Year 11/12:
Bothwell Historical Society – Danielle Bradburn
This year the 11/12 workplace skills class have been lucky enough to go to the Bothwell Historical Society rooms each Tuesday morning. To further strengthen Bothwell District High School’s commitment to a connected community we have been involved in helping digitalise archive material. My job has been to digitalise the society’s meeting records. I have been using excel for this project and have so far found over 150 different attendee names. I have also had the opportunity to designs posters for excursions and events held by the historical society. I am thoroughly enjoying this experience.
Danielle handing Stephen Loring, President of the Bothwell Historical Society, some of the posters that she has created. An invitation to an event that BHS is holding on Monday night has been included in the newsletter and BHS is hoping to see as many community members attend as possible please.
Career Development Education
This week students from Kinder to Year 4, had a Careers Lesson leading up to our Careers Expo. We discussed the difference between a career and a job; we watched a Shaun the Sheep clip and then identified all the different careers that we saw.
We then read a book on the day in the life of a policeman and identified that the police were wearing very different uniforms and accessories today.
Students then did some colouring in of people undertaking their occupations, including bricklayers, a construction team, male and female nurses and an optometrist. I look forward to working the children again soon.
Parents and families remain the sole biggest influence on students’ career choices. The government has developed career resources to assist parents to discuss options with their children. MyFuture https://myfuture.edu.au/assist-your-child and Careerify https://careerify.tas.gov.au/im-a-parent-carer/.
Specialised subject showcase
On the 15th of May 2025 our students made Crunchy Blueberry Muffins. As you can see from the pictures, they are really professionally made.
Cooking Ms Pennicott and Brigette on 22nd May 2025 and the students made Custard and Mixed Berry Danishes.
These look very tasty, just like a bought one.
Launching to Learning (LiL)
Over the past few weeks our Lil children and families look like they have been having loads of fun and learning.
From making sheep, to having theatre shows with ticket sales from the ticket booth. Playing with shaving cream having stories read to them. What a wonderful time they are having, check out the photos.
Careers Expo
Careers Expo
“You can’t be what you can’t see.”
Plans are well underway for our Careers Expo to be held on the 28th of August at BDHS. This Careers Expo is different to others that you may have experienced as it is aimed at students from Prep to Year 12. We are working with Oatlands District High School, Glenora District School and Brighton High School Year 11 students only, to ensure that we get the best Careers Expo we can.
If we want to give our children the best possible options for making informed choices in their future careers, career development must start early. (Australian Blueprint for Career Development). According to the Career Industry Council of Australia, careers involve balancing paid and unpaid work, learning and personal life roles across the lifespan in order to move towards a personally determined future.
Most if not all of our current students will experience more than 1 career over their lifetime. This means that lifelong learning, which requires the ability to upskill and reskill through their lives, will be very important. Alongside this will be having excellent soft skills. Soft skills are much harder to teach but the more opportunities that students gain to practise these soft skills the better their future career prospects will be. Soft skills include, communication, problem solving and teamwork skills as well as personal attributes such as resilience, enthusiasm and being open to new ideas.
We have sent out a letter to potential exhibitors and already the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
If you would like to be an exhibitor, please read the letter below and click the link to register. If you have any questions, please contact me, Helen Doyle. If you would like to volunteer to assist with the organisation, please contact either Helen or Erika.
Not only will students be learning about different career options on the day, they will also have some exciting career-based competitions to enter. We will share more about these as we get closer to the expo.
Campbell Town Show
Our students enjoyed perfect weather at the Campbell Town Show today. Our students who participated in the Fleece Throwing Competition put in an admirable effort. Well done, Bothwell DHS.
Hot lunches.
For the past couple of weeks, the students have been able to enjoy hot lunches and cheap also.
Celebrating student success
During our Assembly on 29th May 2025, we celebrated the following students with awards.
We also drew the Wood raffle the winners were: First prize - 10 tonne of Wood - Wyatt Bannon and his mum Amy Bannon, Second prize - Wooden Jewellery Box - Mrs Annette Brazendale.
Fantastic results for the raffle and thank you to all who bought tickets.
Reminders
Canberra Trip
A reminder to our families that there are two parent information sessions on Tuesday June 10th and Wednesday June 11th in the meeting area. The final payment of $300 is due to the main office before the end of this month.
Other Messages:
Thank you: to the Ramsay Family for the generous donation of potatoes for the school to use.
Thank you: to the Sheep Station Cup for the very generous ten thousand dollars.
Thank you: To the School Association for the sponsoring of Aqua Bubblers (water fountains) for the school.
